[redbean]

The new battle on foreign workers

We have discussed this many times over. Though some were more against foreigner workers, many narrow down to foreign talents that are not really talents but cheap white collar workers. And the gripe is that they are taking away these jobs from Singaporeans who are just as well qualified.

Reading the msm today, a new battle is being fought between the govt and the opposition parties even to the extent of ridiculous challenge asking Worker's Party to just hire Singaporeans. This is the same kind of challenge asking Singaporeans to come up with alternative solutions when it cannot happen simply because the one being challenged is not in a position to carry them out. Ya, hogwash.

So now we have the trade unions and the govt strongly for foreign workers. On the other corner, the natural opponents, the opposition parties.

As far as workers are concerned, it is now an established fact that many jobs are shunned by Singaporeans and only foreigners are willing to accept them. So there should be no question as to whether the employers should or should not employ foreign workers for these jobs.

What is needed is in jobs that Singaporeans want and are qualified to do. If these jobs are lost to Singaporeans, with so many things stacked against them, we are going to see many educated, qualified and angry Singaporeans hogging the net and kpkb.
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

I challenge you!

The last time I remembered challenging someone was 40+ years ago. And we ended up in the backlane wrestling each other.

The last we heard of the Seng Han Tong challenge to the Workers Party was for the WP to hire only Singaporean workers. And I heard a second challenge was issued to WP for its contractors not to hire foreign workers.

This game of challenge is getting interesting. Would the WP start to challenge the govt to allow foreign talents to stand for election? Or would the challenge be on the reduction of petrol prices, reduction of hospital bills? Or would the WP make a challenge that if they become Ministers they will only ask half the present pay?

The possibilities of throwing challenges at one another is enormous. And why not when there is no consequences.
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Don't expect any pay rise

Of course this statement is meant only for the workers. All the rosy pictures painted a few months back, golden years, full employment, needing more foreign workers and talents in a tight job market, employers paying extraordinary salaries to compete for talents (this is still true if we read how SMU fresh graduates are being paid $10K pm), job applicants can pick and choose their jobs, all these are no more.

Despite the runaway cost of living, there will be no huge pay increases to soften the impact. But have no worry, the govt will be there to help. If the govt can afford to give another few hundred thousand dollars to raise the salary of underpaid ministers to market level, they will definitely be able to give another few hundred dollars to the poorer Singaporeans.

It is not that bad after all. Employers don't pay more, there is the govt to back up.

I don't think there will be another round of retrenchment or get rid of the oldies. Then again oldies can look forward to cleaning tables and washing plates in food courts. And they are all very happy doing that in their golden years. They have been interviewed and they have expressed their happiness to have a job and an income. I think the retirement age for such jobs will be raised to 80.
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Fear not retirement plan

Singaporeans got it made for life. They should not fear being unemployed and penniless. I am not referring to the CPF Life. That one is bull. The real stuff is to cash out when property prices are up. And it is up and up as it has been reported almost daily. Just pray that more foreigners keep coming onto our shores to support the property market.

After selling their HDB flats, should be between $500k to $750k, park the money in fixed deposits and live frugally. That will be enough to last them for 30 or 40 years. Where to stay, squat in a temple if possible or with the children. If not, rent a room from the FTs who have bought over their flats.

Two old folks, why do they need more than a room? They could not even have the energy to mop the flat. Renting a room will remove such a chore. Let the FTs look after and maintain the flats. Never mind if they become the new landlords. When you have more than half a million in the bank, nothing to worry about. Sell everything, don't own anything. Just convert to cash. This is the latest mantra now I think.

And the beautiful surroundings and parks will be like the garden of Eden to be enjoyed in the twilight years.
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Fake or forged certificates

More than 400 foreigners were caught last year for using fake or forged certificates to apply for jobs here. This may just be the tip of the iceberg. How many more were not caught and happily working here and being highly paid?

The sad thing is that some Singaporeans would have lost their jobs to these fakers and none the wiser. Would there be a systematic review of all foreigners and their qualifications to return some justice to the displaced Singaporeans?

It would be good if the MOM set up a committee to look into this and splash it on the newspapers. This will tell those who have yet to be caught to make their exits. And include caning in the punishment. If we can cane people for vandalism, we should cane people who cheated Singaporeans of their livelihood and jobs.
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

No easy way out

When asked, Lim Swee Say said that cutting CPF is a last resort and should only be used after all measures have failed. I would presume that retrenchment should be a last resort for companies to take when they are trimming cost. Retrenchment is a very painful process and has a serious psychological effect on the affected staff and should not be treated lightly.

Are we going to see more companies starting their retrenchment exercises as we enter a phase of recession? If that is the alternative, pay cut or CPF cut could be more palatable.

The Union's stand is that no company will be allowed to take the easy way out by retrenching staff in difficult times.
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Union should stand up to face more retrenchment

With Singapore's number one bank firing 900 staff, other banks and companies could take the cue and go into full drive to shed the unnecessary fat that they have accumulated during the hazy days of good profits. Time to start trimming the excesses and grow lean.

What will the union do in the face of more workers facing the chopping block? Lim Swee Say has made the harshest comment so far on DBS. But what's next? We have more than 10 years in converting our rigid pay structure to a flexible one with built in flexi wage and bonuses just for a day like this. Apparently this has been forgotten and everyone is happily wielding the axe as the cure all of the ills of years of irrational exuberance.

There are many other measures that can be implemented other than just axing staff, plus the flexi wage system. There is still a last cut from the CPF. But this is still a long way off. For companies that believe in equal misery and every employee is a member of the big family, that they are caring employers, the first thing to do is to cut bonuses and later wage reduction, early retirement etc. Given the present crisis, some jobs will not be there anymore and this is a unique problem of its own.

The unions must have a list of criteria to look at before giving the nod for companies to cut jobs. Are the companies still profitable? What is the bottom line before union will agree to such a drastic measure? Have other alternatives been explored and adopted that are less painful? Would the retrenchment mean that those who stay will enjoy no loss in pay or benefits? And like it has happened before, after a few months, companies that retrenched staff start to hire again and paying huge bonuses that they benefited from the retrenchment.

Companies also have a responsibility as a corporate citizen. If everyone is so trigger happy to cut staff, we will have a big unemployment problem in hand and many families are going to have a hard time.

It is time that companies, especially those that are 'protected' in some ways be it monopoly or special privileges, connections etc be made to absord some of the pains of the recession and stop thinking that making profit is a guaranteed right of being. It is time that they accept that in bad times, they must absord some losses and look after their employees. The investors were told to take their losses for bad decisions in investing in wrong notes.

The union should pass this message through and wave the red flag and cry foul.
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

The good news - More job losses

Some may take this news negatively, especially when they are going to be hurt badly. From the national point of view, from the employers' point of view, this is good news. There will be more workers available, hungry some more, and they need not have to pay them an arm or a leg to get them. So operating cost will go down. We will become more competitive.

And the residents who are afraid of foreigners, they may see more of them returning home. Then their neighbourhoods will be back to normal.

Singaporeans losing their jobs can go for retraining to become construction workers. And the ladies, maybe can be trained to be domestic maids too.

Think positive.
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Can we afford to look the other way?

Not my problem. They were brought in by contractors and abandoned by contractors. So the contractors responsible should take care of their problems.

There were 179 Bangladeshi workers out of job, out of money, out of food, and no where to go. Who should do something to help them? Like it or not, they now become a social problem to everyone.

The whole process of bringing in foreign workers and the problems arising is going to fall flat on the citizens and the govt. The contractors are going to abscond and the people and govt will have to pick up the pieces.

For these poor workers, sending them back is only the beginning of their bigger problems. They have a huge debt to settle that the cannot be settled without a job and an income here.

And now it is only 179. It can be 1790 or 17900. Then what?
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[Grunt]

We must be gracious and thankful to all these Foreign Talents and Workers.
Without them Singapore would not be what it is today ! .... remember !

So, think it is only aptly responsible of the good government and for it's
people to enlist them in the military or the vigilante corp to either
strengthen our enforcement units or assist them in their daily routines
like area cleaning and cooking maybe ......

WAIT ! .... aren't those jobs already farmed out to contractors ?

darned !

Back to square 1, be gracious and thankful absorbed them in as
citizens and include them in the PA welfare, that's killing two birds
with one stone and they can be legally enlisted too.

How's that ?

[redbean]

Hi Grunt,

You are quite right. Some of them may have experience in neighbourhood watch, neighbour patrol, to protect our women folks and children. Can always, yes give them pink ic, and recruit them into our armed forces or police.

And, with the shortage of manpower to face the terrorist threats, they will come in very handy.
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Paying less to workers to pay more to management

How is that possible? One of the ways is like what Wall Street was doing. The top management just pays themselves crazy. But this is not serious then as the financial institutions were churning up big profits and the workers were small in numbers. Put this into the context of manufacturing companies or any large organizations with a big worker base. The amount paid to the top management must come from the general pool of money available for payout. The more being paid to top management, the lesser will be available for the workers. Yes, it is a zero sum game.

In the same way any organization that pays big bucks to the top must get the money from somewhere. Normally it comes from paying less to the workforce in general. Organisations that pay their top executives big salaries must find ways to boost up the kitty every month. It either comes from higher cost to their products or services, or from paying the workers less. As simple as that, unless money can appear in mid air.

The consumers pay for everything. The workers indirectly pay for the top dollars of their management. True or not?
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

NWC's unenviable task

The NWC will have to make its recommendations on wages soon. This time it is very likely on how to cut wages or reduce wage increases. Bet with you the people who is going to get the wage cut or wage freeze will be the workers.

We will likely see how the use of absolute sum and percentages at its best. Some will be affected by a fixed sum and some by percentages to the benefits of some and disadvantages of others.

The message is likely to be belt tightening to save jobs.
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Would NWC bark up the same old tree?

The high power NWC is again tasked to review the wages of workers, this time when the economy is in a tail spin. In good times, it is in a happier position to quarrel about how much increases to give to the workers. In bad times, it is going to decide how much to cut or not to give to the workers. Hard times mean tough times for the workers, the convenient whipping boy.

The workers is always at the fore front when cost cutting is needed. They either lose their jobs, got their salaries cut, or lose their increments. This is the standard recipe with its standard recommendations.

Didn't we know that labour cost is only one small part of the whole equation of operating cost? Would the NWC do a bit more and look into areas like land cost, rental cost, govt service cost and other cost before slicing through the workers pay packet for once? And don't forget about top management cost.

Any further cuts or lowering of increments are going to hit the workers real hard. All the other costs are going up and we are expecting the workers to bite the bullet and tighten their belts further. Are we demanding too much from the workers? This single perspective approach to tackling the operating cost problem has to be addressed differently.

The cost of other services and goods must be brought down if the workers are to survive this crisis with further restraints on their wages. 80% of the workforce will fall into this trap of rising cost of living and lower income. We need a more enlighten NWC to do something differently instead of just going through the motion like yesteryears.
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

How much must be earned in a life time

How much must be earned in a life time to live in paradise? Take an average 4 roomer two kids family. In his life time he must spend these money other than the normal living expenses. His flat will cost him $500k or more when fully paid up. His Medisave that he cannot touch will be at least $30k. His two kids, if lucky enough to get into university locally, total cost for each upon graduation would easily be $300k. GST at 7% for a $4k monthly expenditure for 50 years will come to $148k. S&C at average $50 pm for 50 years will be $30k. And if he owns a small car, changing one every 10 years, or 5 cars in his lifetime, he will spend at least $300k at $60k each.

The above adds up to a cool $1.6m. Even without owning a car, the amount is $1.3m. This he must have in addition to what he needs to live daily. At a simple $3k pm for 50 years it will add another $1.8m to his total budget. So an average Singaporean family will spend $3.4m in their life time. A very conservative number. And he could count himself lucky if he does not need to be hospitalised. One entry could empty his Medisave or more.

The cost will go up for those who bought bigger houses and cars. A job and a steady income is crucial to keep an average Singaporean alive. it is amazing that we could go on for so long and still aspiring to be more prosperous and to pay more for our standard of living. Singaporeans born today would easily need double or triple that amount to get by.

Would the system be able to pay them that kind of money or would Singaporeans still command that kind of premium in a competitive world market of the future? When I look at our Ah Beng, Ahmad and Muthu, and their counterparts in other countries, they are not much different. And when they put out their best to compete with us, either their income will go up or ours will go down. A new level will be found. Would ours still defy the odds and move up or will the law of diminishing returns drag us down?
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.